Tony Clare is a Chartered Building Surveyor from Surrey whose lengthy vacations on a family farm near Salisbury in Wiltshire inspired a lifelong interest in agricultural history and in particular machinery. He has a small collection of vintage agricultural equipment including two tractors, both of which see action in the autumn at vintage ploughing matches using Ford Ransome ploughs.
This is the first book he has written on an agricultural history topic, although he has undertaken private research on various topics over the years. The book, which provides an historical analysis of Ransomes and the tractor share ploughs they manufactured, has grown from what was intended to be short-term research at the Rural History centre at Reading University, where the Ransomes archive is held.